Subject: [AAA-WG]: CCA: Rating Input

From: "Harri Hakala (TU/LMF)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 13:40:54 +0200

Submitter name: Harri Hakala
Submitter email address: [email-masked]
Date first submitted: October 3, 2003
Reference: 
Document: CCA-00
Comment type: T/E
Priority: 2
Section: 4
Rationale/Explanation of issue:

There have two ways to provide rating input to the CC server,
either by including them in the Service-Parameter-Info AVP or by re-using AVPs from other 
standard/vendor specific Diameter applications (NASREQ, Mobile IP).
The CCA only describes the first option but not the other. Some rating
functionality is discussed here and there in the draft but a general
principles are not addressed in the draft.

Proposed change:

ADD:

4.x Rating Input

There SHOULD be an agreement between the service providers of the credit control
client and the credit control server in order to know who shall handle the billing 
of which services, which chargeable services are available when roaming etc. Part of 
this process has to cover also the agreed rating input.

There are two ways for providing rating input to the credit control server, either by
including them in the Service-Parameter-Info AVP or by re-using AVPs from other Diameter
applications. The general principle for sending rating parameters is that the service
SHOULD re-use existing AVPs, if the service can use AVPs defined by some Diameter application.
The Service-Parameter-Info AVP SHOULD be used when the service is not using any other Diameter
application or can't re-use any AVPs.

The service specific rating input AVPs or the contents of the Service-Parameter-Info AVP are
not within the scope of this document and SHOULD be defined in another Diameter application,
standards written by other standardization bodies, or service specific documentation. 

Within a credit control request, setting the "M" bit implies that a
rating server or the credit control server itself SHOULD understand the AVP in order to rate 
the service. However, since different service providers may apply different rating policies a
mandatory input parameter for one server might be irrelevant for another. Therefore, if the AVP
is not relevant to the rating process, when the AVP is included within a credit-control request,
it can be ignored, even if the "M" bit is set.

In case a rating input required for rating process is missing from the Credit control 
request, the Credit control answer MUST contain error code DIAMETER_RATING_FAILED. A CCR message 
with this error MUST contain one or more Failed-AVP AVPs containing the missing AVPs that caused
the failure.

Best regards..........Harri

---

From: Jari Arkko <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 17:42:18 +0300

> principles are not addressed in the draft.

Yes, this needs to be addressed.

> application or can't re-use any AVPs.

Can you clarify why it would not be appropriate to just require new AVPs
to be defined whenever they are needed?

--Jari